“More trumpet, less music!”
Merry eve of Christmas Eve!
The headline for this email might sound tongue in cheek to my fellow trumpeters, yet with a bit of explanation, even the musical neophytes among my loyal subscribers will have at least a cursory understanding of my message for today.
The last four years, my musical performing presence has not been on the trumpet, as had been the case, well, since rocks were still soft. In 2018, I began singing in the choir at a church here in Virginia Beach. The music director told me he doesn’t use trumpet outside of the Christian high holy days of Christmas and Easter, but he can always use a tenor in the choir.
I deadpanned in my reply, “People usually like me to sing tenor… Tenor twelve miles away.”
The music director simply looked at me, saying nothing. I relented and was at the next rehearsal for the choir. And I’m really glad it worked out that way, because it has given me a brand new education in my musical journey – as well as developing a new tool in my performing arsenal that I intend to utilize when I begin performing in earnest now that Sana is here in the U.S. for good.
Another benefit is that I get a vastly different perspective when the church does use brass instruments on Christmas and Easter.
“Do the choirs typically cringe as I would play alongside them as I’m cringing now?” I have often asked myself in the intervening time.
Now, these folks that are hired are pros and they sound pretty good, so I’m not knocking anyone here — for the moment. It’s just that it’s a different perspective for me and I have a really critical ear when it comes to that kind of thing.
Case in point was last night at the rehearsal for the Christmas Eve service. The two trumpeters were, let’s say not as well prepared as they could have been. But they were the typical meathead trumpeters who fantasize about how HFL (high, fast and loud) they can play. Absent was any sense of lyricism, an awareness that there’s a choir of really talented musicians in their own right right behind them, any musical nuance whatsoever.
One of the guys in particular was among the worst offenders of this crime against musical sensibilities I’ve seen at the professional level. It was as if his mantra for the night was, “More Trumpet, Less Music!” And to say his efforts were not appreciated by those of us in the choir is an understatement.
Now, this is ultimately meaningless in the big picture. Christmas won’t be ruined for anyone, and really the only thing that will come of this incident is fodder for this email.
But there’s an important lesson here of being aware of your surroundings. You may be gifted in some area, but a lack of humility spoils the sweetest of fragrances. We trumpeters get caught up in how loud our instrument is, we forget that real leadership sometimes means saying nothing at all.
I could probably tallk for 3 hours on that topic alone.
It’s why I continue to do the Trumpet Dynamics podcast. If it can save just one Christmas Eve service from the perils of the typical trumpeter’s ego, it will have all been worth it 😉
Here’s the link to listen and subscribe if this pikes your interest.